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Expanded 9/11 Victims' Fund Opens to Applicants

Monday, October 03, 2011

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“My volunteering, I didn’t get paid for. I wasn’t covered by workers comp really. And my long term job outlook is basically I’m disabled to the point I can’t work and social security only goes so far.”

The Department of Justice is expected to re-open the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund starting Monday — allowing people whose illness didn't manifest until the months and years after the attacks to be covered for the first time.

The fund was reactivated as part of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act passed last December by Congress, which appropriated $2.7 billion to the program. The boundaries of Lower Manhattan residents eligible for the funds have also been expanded.

How much each claimant will get won’t be known until the number of those seeking funds is decided. Cancer and mental or psychological conditions are not covered under the Zadroga Act.

Sheila Birnbaum, the special master administering the fund, is expected to release the first of a three-part application online on Monday.

The Application

The Department of Justice did not confirm the details of the application.

But attorney Michael Barasch, whose firm is poised to represent claimants and says he helped craft the application, said part one will cover biographical information.

“Were you a tenant, a rescue worker? Were you a firefighter, a cop, a sanitation worker, a construction worker? Who did you work for? How many days were you down there? That kind of stuff,” Barasch said.

Part two, he said, will cover the illnesses suffered by the claimant. Part three will be about any loss income experienced because of the illness.

Those covered under the fund include individuals injured in the immediate aftermath of the attacks or those who were sickened while working or living at or near the World Trade Center site in the months following the incident.

While many claimants have hired lawyers to help them through the claims process, the application is designed for individuals to fill it out themselves.

The fund is intended to bring relief to the possibly thousands of first responders, volunteers and others living and working in the area at the time of the attacks who say their illnesses didn’t manifest until the months or years after the incident.

Family members of those who died can also apply.

Dogged by long-term medical problems

Philip Kirschner, who lives in Brooklyn, said he was a volunteer EMT for the Bedford-Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corps on September 11.

Since that day, he said he's been suffering from asthma, PTSD, renal cancer and other health issues. He also said his income isn’t enough to cover his medical bills.

“My volunteering, I didn’t get paid for,” Kirschner said. “I wasn’t covered by workers comp really. And my long term job outlook is basically I’m disabled to the point I can’t work and social security only goes so far.”

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Comments [4]

Dwayne Duprey

I am a retired Ct firefighter who volunteered at ground zero was recently diagnosed with Restrictive Airway Disease and sleep apnea which they say is caused by the job coupled with my time at ground zero is it to late to sign on if not where do I do it or talk to about doing so

site http://www.heroeshonoringheroes.com its been very hard for me i try to put in infor for people like us i have someone that sends me what ever

comes out i had people trying to put porn in the site so i just dont let any one reg because am very sick to from down there ALL MY CASES ARE WON THERY should be public and am not sure why they are not other law frims should be useing my case to see how i won and what the ruleing was but every thing thats wrong with me DID COME FROM GROUND ZERO MY RIGHT LUNG AND MY PTSD AND REST OF THE STUFF IS IN MY CASE FILE so anyway am trying to find my web site PEOPLE I BEEN TRYING TO FIND THE CODE I PUT IN BUT I CANT FIND IT BUT I BEEN TRYING TO PUT WHAT I KNID FIND IN THERE ANY WAY oops sorry dam caps if theres something that i find i have beentrying to keep up with what comes out i had to leave ny i just cant aford to live there any more i now live in pa good luck guys god bless

I am a 911 survivor I have never been the same I had to run down 40 flights of stairs and when I got to the 10th landing my legs were traumatized I couldn't move. One of my colleagues had to help me down the last 10 flights. It took me 8 hours to get home that day. I was on medical leave from 9/11/01 until 1/28/02. I placed a call to Fema but at that time I didn't feel like I was entitled to any compensation. The representative I spoke with made me feel as though I was just wasting their time. So I never tried back. Since then now feel as though I should receive some sort of compensation. I would like to apply for some financial assistance when it becomes available. I am registered with the WTC Registry and I hear from them on a regular basis and I always fill out the surveys they send. I am ot well have not been for quite some time. I am on anti-depression medication and have been since 9/11. I do go to work every day but when I come home I just stay in only go out when needed. I have no social life my sisters don't communicate with me and both my parents are deceased.

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